A New Petrol Road Roller.
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Latest French Application of the Internal Combustion Engine.
For many years the rolling ot roads, under construction or repair, has been performed by the steam road roller, a machine of considerable magnitude and weight, and one to which the application of the explosion engine was hardly looked for by engineers. That the latter type of motive power is finding for itself new spheres of work is again demonstrated in the most recent type of road roller to come under our notice_ This machine, the Lally automobile road roller, is driven by a petrol motor of 6-9h.p. It is furnished with a single front roller, forming a steering wheel, actuated by chains fixed to the rectangular horizontal frame enclosing it, causing it to turn round its vertical axis, and two rear roller driving wheels. Two forward speed ratii.;:. can be obtained (the first of 1.55 miles per hour, and the second of 2.18 miles), and a reverse. "fly change-speed gear is operated by two levers placed on the right of the driver, one controlling the forward speeds and the other the reverse. The clutch is of the friction cone type; is placed in the fly-wheel, and is actuated by a pedal. The machine is built up of a cylindrical body, which forms an annular reservoir for the cooling water. This body is lengthened in front by a special steel casting called the" horse's head," which receives the swivel-pin on the yoke of the front roller. The motor and other parts are carried on two brackets of U section, and the driver is provided with a platform situated at the back of the road roller. The whole design is one showing considerable originality on the part of the constructors, and a notable point is that, owing to thc greatly diminished height of the machine, it should be able to deal with areas hitherto incapable of access in consequence ol overhanging obstructions or bridges. The overall breadth of the roller at the back is ti metre, and the total length about 3 metres. It has been used with success at Boulogne and, doubtless, it will come into a considerable vogue among those who pin their faith on the internal-combustion engine,
and whose garage space is limited. In England, excellent water-ballast rollers, fitted with explosion motors, are built by Messrs_ Harford and Perkins, of Peterborough,